AE CC 2018 ridiculously slow

[niklas.alden]

Seriously, what is wrong with AE CC 2018!?

I'm on an absolute beast of a workstation, a HP Z840 with 128 GB RAM, dual Titan X:s and so forth, but I can't even preview a simple text animation!

It takes forever to preview, and playback tops out at about 10 fps... I've got nothing in the timeline but animated text, no other graphics, no video, nothing.

And it's not only the preview that's messed up, the entire interface is laggy, when I move the cursor in the timeline sometimes it takes like a second for it to catch up.

Everything I try to do, import a file, keyframe an object, add an effect to something, and so on, takes forever.

I've done restarts, checked nvidia drivers, purged all memory and disk cache, cleaned database an cache, everything you could ever think of, but it's still painfully slow.

I never had these problems in cc 2017, it ran like a dream.

I'm at a point where it is virtually imposible to work, and it's making me a bit frustrated to say the least.

Don't tell me I have to downgrade to be able to work, that would just be, well, silly.

Why on earth would anybody release a version this unstable?

[arforster]

Have a similarly beefed up system, and it basically just crawls. All kinds of stuttering, slow UI response, and weird artifacts. It's possible one of the most disappointing things I've seen in a while.

I'll be watching this space to see if anyone from Adobe would like to clear anything up.

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi Niklas.Alden,

Please contact support for assistance with this: FAQ: How do I contact Adobe Support?

Let us know any solutions they help you find.

Thanks,
Kevin

[jessek70953224]

Please post if you find a solution.   I have a dual Xeon, Titan12gb and 72 gigs of ram and After Effects has never been slower.  Its painful to use.

[HerrBidon]

Yes please post a solution... I don't have the same beast like you ,  but with an Icore 7, 64gB ram , a nvidia 1060, and data on Raid 0 ssd pro (4 hdd) , I could expect better...... and after affects is so slow...

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi JesseK,

Did you contact support yet? Please do so if you have not already.

Thanks,
Kevin

[alim48801994]

Hi..I have a computer Z840 mighty specification .... RAM 128 GB speed 2400 graphics card nvidea p6000 24gb hardisk ssd 1000gb ... unfortunately very bad at work with after effect 2020 and also 2019 and also 2018 and 2017 unfortunately .... I tried all means but Still bad work

[shannonr50527703]

Same issue here. The new update is causing lots of problems. So much so I cant even use After Effects. Slows down to a stop. Currently installing and going back to version 2017.

[Dave_LaRonde]

niklas.alden  wrote

Seriously, what is wrong with AE CC 2018!?

I'm on an absolute beast of a workstation, a HP Z840 with 128 GB RAM, dual Titan X:s and so forth, but I can't even preview a simple text animation!

...

I never had these problems in cc 2017, it ran like a dream.

...

Why on earth would anybody release a version this unstable?

You must remember that Adobe's prime interest is NOT you, the user.  Adobe's prime interest is to lure more people into renting its software. 

To do that, Adobe needs glitzy new features.  Adobe's AE team can barely keep up with bug fixes.  But its attention is mandated by management away from making the software actually work, focusing on new features.  Thus, new versions with new features are introduced that break things that previously worked just fine the day before on the same machines and the same OSs.

My policy is to remain one full number version behind.  Thus I now run the fully-updated AE Version 14.... not 15.  I'm on CC 2017... not CC 2018.  I am happy to report that things run smoothly.  I could care less about the new features in CC 2018 -- They only rarely fulfill their promise in the first place.

You might want to consider doing likewise....

[vinnynew]

I'm installing CC2017 as we speak to see if it fixes the issue

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Vincen,

Please let us know how it goes with the previous version.

Regards,
Kevin

[brianb36310752]

I have a question, why would using a previous version even be a viable solution?

[P.M.B]

  wrote

I have a question, why would using a previous version even be a viable solution?

More stable. Less bugs.  Plus it's retro.

[christopherjacobs]

So... Google shows that this is solved...but it's NOT SOLVED....any advice? Seems like using After Effects on a PC just sucks.... big time. I have a maxed out system...and it's like using after effects on a G4 mac.... I should clarify... it's quick when rendering...but moving around the UI is just crap!! Scrubbing sound... you get huge stutters.. my iMac Pro sings in AE.. my beefed up PC (32 gigs ram, i7, nvidia RTX 2070)... it should sing even better on a system like this.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Dave,

You must remember that Adobe's prime interest is NOT you, the user.  Adobe's prime interest is to lure more people into renting its software.

This is your opinion, but not fact. Adobe employees actually do care about the customer. Sorry you feel otherwise or have the impression that we don't care about people. We do.

Regards,
Kevin

[lprosciutto]

I'm sorry but while I believe you and coworkers care, the people upstairs truly don't. It's not just After Effects either.

We're on the topic of After Effects and it's truly painful to use day in and out. I'll have an empty composition and just using the text tool is awful. It doesn't show what I'm typing, the cursor disappears and when I have to fix a typo, which is inevitable since it doesn't show me what I was typing, trying to fix it just causes more typos. That's just one issue, I can go on all day.

Premiere "Pro" - I have to spend 6 hours rendering proxies before I can even start editing and even then scrubbing and playback still skips and stutters. Has anyone at Adobe ever tried Final Cut? That same 4k footage on the same computer plays back buttery smooth in their timeline.

Lightroom Classic - By far the worst of the worst. Now I only have to wait 10 seconds for my computer to unfreeze every time I move a slider instead of 15 seconds with the new "faster performance" update. I guess I'll take it.

I use a fully specced 2017 iMac. I know it's not a monster work machine but it should be able to handle the text tool in After Effects.

It's such a shame. I love Adobe products but using them everyday at work is not enjoyable.

New features don't mean anything when the core app is borderline unusable.

[ColbyFulton]

That’s true. Type tool is a real issue. I’ve been using after effects for about 25 years and it often seems slower today than it used to.

[jackthegiantslayer]

Wow, do not even get me started.

Kevin-Monahan  wrote

This is your opinion, but not fact. Adobe employees actually do care about the customer. Sorry you feel otherwise or have the impression that we don't care about people. We do.

Regards,
Kevin

Tell me, when it took your team TWO YEARS to finally stop a bug that rendered AE useless on most retina Macs, do you think I felt cared for? Do you think the fact that I'm still using an older version of your application because the latest is both unstable and strips out critical codecs makes me feel cared for? Do you think I feel cared for when I'm spending $50 a month to beta test your half-baked updates across the board? Or when I have to backpedal on a project and export it down versions because I realize your latest update has just hosed some critical workflow and/or broken something? Thanks for caring, I feel so much better!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello jackthegiantslayer,

• Tell me, when it took your team TWO YEARS...
• Do you think the fact that I'm still using an older version of your application...
• Do you think I feel cared for when I'm spending $50 a month to beta test...
• Or when I have to backpedal on a project....

Sorry you're so upset.

I'm speaking for myself and my colleagues in support when I say that we actually do care. We are working here in the forums on a daily basis. We care enough to spend hours and hours on these forums helping folks solve problems. From that perspective, I feel we do care about customer success. I'm sorry if you feel otherwise.

If you want to complain about the quality of our applications, that's a little bit different and not the purpose of these troubleshooting forums.

In that case, it would be better to get those criticisms directly in front of the application's developers. The new user voice site is the place to let your comments be heard. Here is the link: After Effects: Hot (511 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

Thanks,
Kevin

[darionLeigh333]

I contacted Adobe support to discuss this problem. They blamed everything but their own software and insisted that I buy, more RAM and get my computer back to the manufacturers. eventually they conceded that it was an Adobe issue and that they couldn't fix it. They then closed the ticket without solving the issue.

[vinnynew]

Do we have an answer for this yet because I have a beefy system and I'm experiencing the same issue

[12maowai34]

I'd like to add my complaint to this thread as well. I have a project with only text and shape layers (very few effects), and it's just crawling along. It's making getting my work done really difficult. The previous version wasn't like this at all.

[bevlak]

yeah me too.  8 core intel, 64gb ram, gtx1080.  crashes half the time when i move a ui panel, insanely slow preview.  i just dont understand how this has happened

[ladybird1981]

Yep. I'm probably going to cancel my monthly service next month and switch to a product that I can actually use.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Niklas.Alden,

Are you still facing this issue? Let us know.

Thanks,
Kevin